Our Positive Space Alliance emblem is an integration of three historically powerful symbols of the Gay Liberation movement: the Rainbow Flag, the Pink Triangle and the Black Triangle. We chose to combine these three symbols in our emblem both as a remembrance of the oppression faced by gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people throughout history, and as a reflection of strength and pride that exists within our community.
An estimated 220,000 gay men and lesbians died along with Jews, Gypsies and members of the Nazi resistance from the beginnings of the rise of Nazi power, in Nazi concentration camps and during the aftermath of World War II. Concentration camp prisoners were identified by a set of coloured triangles, the Pink Triangle being used to denote gay men. Today, the Pink Triangle has come to represent the phrase "Never Forget, Never Again".
The Black Triangle was used by the Nazis to identify "socially unacceptable" women. Lesbians were included in this category. Lesbians have since reclaimed the Black Triangle as a symbol of their defiance against repression and discrimination.
Mixing these two elements into the stylized mountains is in tribute to those peaks that surround Nanaimo, specifically Mount Benson.
The Rainbow Flag, created in 1978 for San Francisco's Gay Freedom Celebration, depicts the colours of the rainbow in horizontal stripes. This flag, which has become a universal emblem for unity within diversity (or diversity within unity), remains a powerful symbol of pride within the 2SLGBTQ+ communities. Here, it has been incorporated into our logo to look like the shimmering waves that we can see in the harbour below the Mountain range.